Crimes and Misdemeanours - British Edition Quiz

Answer: Tom Keating

Tom Keating was a skilled artist, specialising in creating paintings which he passed off as being by well known artists. Among his works were paintings in the style of Degas, Rembrandt and Gainsborough, with a speciality being water colours purporting to be by Samuel Palmer.

In 1977, he was arrested but the planned trial did not go ahead due to Keating's ill health. He published a book, called 'The Fake's Progress', also in 1977.

Answer: George Blake

Blake was originally a spy for the British, having been recruited by MI6 towards the end of World War II. He was posted to Seoul with his brief being to collect information on North Korea, the USSR and China. During the Korean War, Blake transferred his allegiance to the KGB, the Soviet Union's secret service.

His activities were discovered in 1961 and Blake was sentenced to serve over forty years in prison, but he managed to escape in 1966 and made his way to the USSR, where he was still living in the early years of the twenty-first century.

Answer: Chris Huhne

Chris Huhne was a politician, a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament, and a member of the Coalition government formed in 2010. In 2011 his estranged wife, Vicky Pryce, disclosed that, in 2003, Huhne had persuaded her to accept penalty points for speeding, by telling the police that she had been driving the car involved. Huhne had been the driver, but would have lost his licence if he had admitted this. Both Huhne and Pryce were convicted of perverting the course of justice and sentenced to eight months in prison.

Answer: Bartholomew Roberts

Roberts was captured by the pirate Howell Davis in 1719 and forced into piracy. He took over as captain, by popular vote, when Davis himself was killed shortly afterwards. Roberts changed his name from (probably) John to Bartholomew and proceeded to become one of the most successful pirates of the so-called 'Golden Age of Piracy' as 'Black Bart'.

He is said to have captured more ships than his competitors put together. Roberts' career was short lived, though, as he was killed in 1722.

Answer: John Haigh

Haigh was known as the 'Acid Bath Murderer' as he disposed of his victims in sulphuric acid in the mistaken belief that the lack of a body meant that murder could not be proved. His motivation was money, to fund his gambling. Haigh was convicted of six murders and executed by hanging in 1949.

Answer: William Joyce

Joyce was known as Lord Haw-Haw during World War II, when he broadcast propaganda to the UK on behalf of the Nazi regime. Joyce was born in America, to an Irish family, and raised in Ireland from a young age. He moved to England and became a member of the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley, and left for Germany when the war was imminent. Joyce was captured towards the end of the war, tried and found guilty of high treason and hanged at Wandsworth Prison in 1946.

Answer: Nick Leeson

Nick Leeson was the 'rogue trader' who destroyed the merchant bank called Barings. Leeson was working in Singapore and made investments which failed. Rather than own up to his mistakes, he made further deals in an attempt to recoup the losses, which only made his (and the bank's) problems worse.

When his situation became untenable, Leeson fled to Thailand and was eventually arrested in Germany. Baring's losses were too large for the bank to recover, and it collapsed in 1995.

Answer: Howard Marks

Marks was from Wales and began dealing in cannabis while at university, continuing on a small scale by selling to friends until his mid-twenties. He was approached by a drug trafficker and soon established a large scale operation, importing large amounts of cannabis from various sources.

The level of dealing attracted the attentions of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of the United States and Marks was arrested and imprisoned in 1990 before being given parole in 1995.

Answer: Ronald Biggs

Biggs was one of the 'Great Train Robbers'. In 1963, a gang attacked a Royal Mail train and stole nearly three millions pounds sterling, equivalent to almost 50 million pounds in 2017. The gang members, including Biggs, were caught quickly (although the money wasn't found) and the leaders were sentenced to thirty years in prison. Biggs, along with other members, escaped and spent many years in Australia and Brazil, before returning to the UK voluntarily where he died in 2013.

Answer: Jeffrey Archer

Archer was a Member of Parliament who lied in court about his involvement with a prostitute during a libel case against the Daily Star newspaper - a case which he won. It later came to light that the facts were true and Archer was charged with perjury in 2000, thirteen years after the libel case.

He was found guilty and jailed for four years. Archer also had to repay the damages he had received from the Daily Star in 1987.